In a major relief for ‘eligible’ candidates, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that if the West Bengal government decides to postpone the upcoming School Service Commission (SSC) exams, then the court will consider the matter.  Responding to a petition on Thursday, a division bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma of the Supreme Court said that if the state government wants to postpone the exam, the apex court will consider it. Even teachers currently in service have been given extra time of seven days to fill up the form.

As per the rule, eligible candidates will have to attend school regularly and conduct classes till December 31. As a result, they are getting no time to prepare for the fresh exams scheduled next month. Therefore, the ‘eligible’ job seekers had filed a petition to postpone the exam which will be conducted on September 7 and 14.

Disappointing that you’re trying to save the ineligible by excluding qualified ones: SC to SSC

The Division bench of the Supreme Court rebuked the School Service Commission on Thursday. Justice Sanjay Kumar told School Service Commission’s (SSC) lawyer, “It is very disappointing that you are trying to save the ineligible by excluding the qualified ones. You are still trying to get the ineligible candidates of your choice into the job? This is shameful! We have already said that no ineligible person will be allowed to appear for the recruitment examination. All those who are teaching in schools as qualified till December 31st, will have to be approved for the examination. The state government can postpone the examination date if it wants.”

Why did Supreme Court cancel SSC recruitment of 2016?

The Calcutta High Court, in an order dated April 22, 2024, initially canceled nearly 25,000 appointments from the 2016 recruitment process, deeming the entire process vitiated by fraud and tainted beyond repair. This High Court order was challenged in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, on April 3, 2025, upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision, citing large-scale fraud and manipulation within the recruitment process. The Supreme Court further dismissed review petitions challenging this verdict on August 5, 2025.

The Supreme Court cancelled the SSC recruitment procedure of 2016, calling it ‘institutional corruption’. As a result, over 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff lost their job overnight. The Supreme Court had ordered them to be recruited through a new exam. Accordingly, the state government has issued a new recruitment notification. The exam dates have been announced as September 7 and 14.

In the meantime, the state government has requested that ‘qualified teachers’ continue to teach in schools due to shortage of staff. They will teach in schools till December 31, 2025. At the same time, they will also have to prepare for the upcoming exams. The teachers are not getting enough time to prepare for the exams after conducting classes every day. Therefore, the new recruitment exam of the Service Commission should be postponed, the ‘qualified’ employees requested the Supreme Court during a hearing on Thursday.

Qualified candidates with 45% marks in graduation should be allowed to appear in SSC Exam: Plea

At the same time, the candidates requested that the serving teachers who got 45 percent marks at the graduation level should be allowed to appear in the new recruitment exam just like it was allowed in 2016. But why this request? According to the new rules of NCERT, only those who get 50 percent marks in graduation and post-graduation can appear in SSC exam. This has been mentioned in the new government notification. That is why ‘qualified’ candidates have appealed to be allowed to appear in the exam with 45 percent marks instead of 50 percent.

This year’s SSC recruitment drive is one of the largest

Meanwhile, The West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBSSC) has issued the admit cards for the Second State Level Selection Test (SLST) 2025. The WBSSC SLST is conducted to recruit teachers for government and government-aided schools across West Bengal. This year’s recruitment drive is one of the largest, with 35,726 vacancies, including 12,514 posts for Assistant Teachers of Classes 11 and 12 (Higher Secondary) and 23,212 posts for Assistant Teachers of Classes 9 and 10 (Secondary).

As per the official schedule, the examination will be conducted in two phases. The test for Classes 9 and 10 will be held on September 7, 2025, while the exam for Classes 11 and 12 (Higher Secondary) will take place on September 14, 2025. Both exams will be conducted in a single shift from noon to 1.30 PM.

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